Turning round a difficult customer or team-member....

From late 2004 until 2010, I worked as a sales manager with a medical sales team in the South of England selling medical devices to healthcare organisations.

One day one of my team and I had a client meeting in London. The client was a senior specialist nurse (we’ll call him Pete), and we were meeting to discuss how we might better support him in his work while exploring opportunities for our portfolio. Pete was a highly experienced nurse who’d been ‘worn down’ (his words) by the work.

The salesperson I was working with asked Pete questions about his priorities and long-term aspirations, and Pete’s answers were incredibly negative.

I'd recently qualified as an NLP practitioner. Having a sense that there was a way to turn the meeting around, I recalled a question I repeated to myself when I was feeling stumped (and I still use it to this day).

‘What is the best question I can ask right now?’

It’s an invaluable prompt for creating a change in my own mental state and others’.

I turned to Pete and asked, ‘Do you mind if I ask a question?’ (top tip, ask permission to ask a question and you can then ask anything).

‘Pete, what’s been your greatest achievement in the last twelve months? The thing you’re most proud of?’

He looked surprised then quickly said, ‘There isn’t anything. It’s been a terrible year.’

‘So, you’re telling me that in the whole of the last year, there isn’t anything you’ve achieved at work that you’re proud of?’

This seemed to shock him. There was a silence while he thought long and hard.

We waited.

Finally, Pete said, ‘Well, there’s the patient audit we did this year.’

‘A patient audit? Tell me more about that.’

He went on to tell us about the project he’d led – a trust-wide audit of over 1,000 patients occupying beds in the hospital. He explained how he’d coordinated it all, then used the data to build a business case – which led to an investment, which upgraded the beds across the trust. The follow-up audit revealed that this had significantly impacted the quality of care for patients.

A really impressive achievement, that he’d completely forgotten about.

The meeting transformed. Once Pete had tapped into the positive event and was explaining it and experiencing it again, everything changed – his posture, his body language, his attitude. Everything.

We ended up uncovering a significant opportunity that complemented his recent work and would deliver benefits to his service and future patient treatment. It was also valuable for our business.

It is possible to turn around difficult client meetings (and clients).

When you ask the right questions, you help your clients in ways they don’t realise are possible.

You can create opportunities that have benefits that are far reaching for your clients, for you and for the industry in which you operate.

Your potential in a sales or leadership role goes far beyond success in your business.

You can make a real difference in the world.

I'd love to hear your experience of dealing with difficult customers or team-members.

If you're interested in learning more about improving your sales or leadership approach or you need assistance in implementing growth strategies, feel free to reach out.

I'm here to support you in achieving your sales objectives for 2024 and beyond.

You can contact me at [email protected].